Midwinter Meanderings Minus Maximon … also Minus Zero

Cold Snap-Shots – January 2017

1. Photo of Maximon on pHantaJIm‘s mask wall, shot in early January 2017

2. Jericho Beach Vancouver New Years Day 2017 Polar Person emerging from English Bay, RVYC, West End and North Shore mountains in background

Maximon Mask (1) thought it was too cold outside to come off the wall and go for a walk to Jericho Beach on New Years Day, so went bare-faced by myself. He was right about the cold, and the road-ice made for treacherous footing, but I made it down there in the early afternoon.

I don’t do polar bear swims but someone else did (2).

3. Shot of Herb Mire, Jericho Beach’s scary tree, taken 170101

Was old pal Herb Mire (3) shivering under his blanket of snow.

4. Arch at Kits Point, with skaters, taken on 170112; arch is reminiscent of Poseidon’s Gate on Naxos in the Cycladic Islands of Greece

Might have been; still looked like he was stalking someone. Or was it something? Ducks on the frozen pond? A coyote in the underbrush trough, perhaps?

A week later a one-day rainstorm washed away a lot of the snow and melted most of the ice. The cold came back the next day, though, and shows no sign of leaving any time soon.

5, Vancouver’s frozen over Kits Pool, shot on 170112

So I went down to Kits Point to see if the teleportal (4) to Naxos, in the Cyclades, was working yet. It wasn’t. Weird how it never is whenever I try it.

6. Vancouver’s Grouse Mountain shot across English Bay from Kits Point on 170101

No one was swimming in Kits Pool (5). Mind you, no one was skating on it, either. Mountains looked nice (6).

Mock up for Helmoon Back Cover, 2013, prepared by Jim McPherson in 2013 using the Delphi Sphinx

NOTE 2: Herb Mire, unnamed at the time, has appeared on pHantaBlog previously. Serendipitously it was posted on January 13, 2015, two years ago today: Marauding Mire Monster Shot.

Sphinx shot in the Delphi Museum turns out to have been from the island of Naxos originally

NOTE 3: According to Wikipedia, what I was told was called Poseidon’s Gate, when I went to Naxos in 2004, is actually what’s left of the entrance to Apollo’s Temple.

Finally, since this is pHantaBlog, not pHantaJim‘s blog, I was surprised to discover that the Delphi Sphinx I used in one of my mock-ups for the back cover of “Helios on the Moon” is actually a Naxian sphinx.

Nothing on Wikipedia page as to why it ended up in the Delphi museum in time for me to get a shot of it in 2012.

Poseidon Gate shot on island of Naxos in 2004 turns out to be what’s left of the entrance to the Apollo Temple according to Wikipedia